Journal Article

The politicians' wage gap: insights from German Members of Parliament

Authors

Publication date

Sep 2013

Summary

Using a unique dataset of German members of parliament (MPs), this paper analyzes the politicians' wage gap (PWG). After controlling for observable characteristics as well as accounting for election probabilities and campaigning costs, we find a positive income premium for MPs which is statistically and economically significant. Our results are consistent with the citizen candidate model, with a PWG of 35%-65% when comparing MPs to citizens occupying executive positions. However, it shrinks to zero when restricting the control group to top level executives.

Published in

Public Choice

Volume and page numbers

156 , 653 -676

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11127-012-9921-4

ISSN

16

Subjects

Politics and Wages And Earnings

Links

http://serlib0.essex.ac.uk/record=b1653948~S5

Notes

Online in Albert Sloman Library, except current 12 months

#521843